Dead Space 3 Review

Weapons

Now for the part that most look forward to. The weapons. Stasis and kinesis are still very much a part of the game. You still have the Plasma guns, the Ripper, and all the other lovely toys that Isaac used to kill and slaughter in the previous games. But the guys at Visceral have taken things a little further in this one by building on Isaac’s engineering background. You can now craft customized weapons at workbenches found throughout the game, as well as add new uses for old weapons. What’s cooler than sending a blade from the Ripper tearing through a Necromorph? Sending one with the Acid Bath mod added. Or modify the Galvanizer or Force gun with Stasis to slow enemies to a crawl with every shot. Even better, enhance the Ripper to provide electrical damage as well as blades. And with Universal Ammo, you can have a steady supply of firepower for ANY gun in your arsenal. No need to leave a gun behind due to lack of ammo.

You can also craft tools that will help you throughout the campaign. Create a helpful tool that will allow you to unlock doors. Collect all kinds of items and weapons throughout the game, combine them at a workbench, and use your final products to kill and survive. Make your own medpacks. Best of all, when you create something new, you can save the blueprints and share them online with your friends.

If that’s not enough to get you playing, there’s New Game+ Mode. In order to unlock New Game+ and it’s many variations, you have to be the game at least once. This can be done on any difficulty. If you want a little bit of variety in your second play through you can choose from the following NG+ Variants:

Classic
Playing Classic NG+ changes the look and feel of the game slightly to call back to the original Dead Space game. Difficulty increased and in-world aiming is turned on. Necromorphs do increased damage.
This mode unlocks the Devil Horns.

Pure Survival
Pure Survival turns your NG+ into an episode of one of those survival shows on the Discovery channel. You will find no health, ammo, or stasis packs in the world, only raw resources. If you want a health pack, you better dig for the material to craft one.
This mode unlocks the MK-II Overclocked Parts Set and Mega Resources Deposit.

Hardcore Mode
This is the hardest difficulty mode in Dead Space 3. It’s Impossible Difficulty and you cannot die. Not once. Because of Dead Space 3‘s auto-save, they’ve done anyway with any save limitations and just said flat out that you’ll be sent back to the beginning if you die.

If you’re looking to just play the game by yourself the first time and have no intention of looking for every extra item and mission, you can make it through in around 8 hours. If you have a partner, you can cut it down to around 6 hours. If you decide to do the missions and find each and every hidden item, you’re looking at closer to 20 hours of gameplay.